Plaincast — the National Weather Service forecast, decoded into plain English

Plaincast decodes the National Weather Service's Area Forecast Discussion — the real forecast, written 3 to 4 times a day by the meteorologist on shift — into plain English. The discussion is where a forecaster explains their reasoning: which models disagree, what they are watching, and how confident they are. Below is the current edition for Raleigh, with its shorthand expanded. The full experience — an AI plain-English summary beside the annotated original — loads with JavaScript, and every one of the 68 forecast offices has its own edition.

Area Forecast Discussion · National Weather Service Raleigh (RAH) · issued Friday, September 11 at 6:47 AM EDT.

What has changed

Heat indices 100-102 in the Triangle Area south and east to the coast today. Best chance of storms in the northeast.

Messages

Hot today with a chance of PM thunderstorms, especially north and east.

A bit cooler Saturday, but high humidity and thunderstorms are expected.

This is the plain-text edition, decoded without AI so it loads anywhere. Read the whole Raleigh discussion at /o/RAH/, see what changed since the last one, or open The National Desk for where the weather is today.